tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-510288940796977839.post8237982603193604024..comments2016-10-26T11:09:03.863-07:00Comments on paul gregutt&#39;s washington wine blog – unfined &amp; unfiltered: fearless or feckless?PaulGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05409346656762573929noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-510288940796977839.post-44754851558086759032009-12-10T11:02:28.511-08:002009-12-10T11:02:28.511-08:00I have worked in wine making and have now moved to...I have worked in wine making and have now moved to vineyard mgt.(6 yrs) I have never been and will never be a wine snob. Who cares how people describe it, if it helps those who may be afraid to say it has burnt earth smell because they are not &quot;schooled&quot; in proper wine descriptors right on. Lets have some fun and get everyone talking, Along the way they will get educated(like myself) . To be involved in wine is one of my greatest achievements and if everyone feels some sort of connection with it I am all for it lacquered plum or not.sweetest jobnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-510288940796977839.post-7202137986822007992009-12-10T10:29:43.604-08:002009-12-10T10:29:43.604-08:00Thanks for your insight Paul, much appreciated. S...Thanks for your insight Paul, much appreciated. Specifically I&#39;ve seen kaolin, a compound in the China clay used in pencils, cited as giving rise to the &#39;metallic, dusty&#39; aroma, as you phrase it. I mentioned pencil shavings since it&#39;s fairly common, both as an experience in grade school and in tasting notes--Gary Vaynerchuck uses it a lot, I think. With mechanical pencils more common now, perhaps pencil shavings will become antiquted?<br><br>Cheers,<br>GregGreghttp://thecabfrancofiles.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-510288940796977839.post-25257152000002113992009-12-10T07:03:21.029-08:002009-12-10T07:03:21.029-08:00I don&#39;t recall ever using &quot;pencil shaving...I don&#39;t recall ever using &quot;pencil shavings&quot; because it is a mix of aromas, as Greg points out. Graphite or pencil lead I associate with a somewhat dusty, metallic aroma - though not necessarily earthy, like clay. But as with many such terms, it is highly subjective. I think for a reader to find anyone&#39;s descriptors useful, it is helpful to follow that person&#39;s writing over a period of time. See if his/her impressions and palate correspond with your own. The descriptors can help, and if you are tasting the actual wine, they may guide your own impressions, much as sitting in a group tasting will impact what you taste.PaulGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16447594440159317809noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-510288940796977839.post-40377110335538836052009-12-10T06:43:06.791-08:002009-12-10T06:43:06.791-08:00The description of ANY wine is truly a subjective ...The description of ANY wine is truly a subjective thing. All reviewers - professional and novice - will see wines from their unique individual perspective based on their backgrounds, the foods they consumed growing up, the smells they encountered in their lives, and yes, the wines they&#39;ve consumed.<br><br>Is it &#39;wrong&#39; for a reviewer to use terms like &#39;lacquered plums&#39;? I think not, for that is what the wine smelled or tasted like to HIM or HER. I don&#39;t find it pompous at all . . . I may not AGREE with it, but that&#39;s okay too.<br><br>Wine can take all of us to a different place and a different time - I&#39;ve been around people who smell a wine and immediately say it smells like &#39;grandma&#39;s attic&#39; or &#39;a campfire at Yosemite I was at as a kid&#39; . . . Are THESE pompous? Not at all . . .<br><br>Sure, it&#39;s great to &#39;simplify&#39; the descriptors used to give the appearance that the reviewer is talking a &#39;common language&#39; - I get that. Wine does not need to be complicated and for the industry to grow we need to break down the wall of pompousness and exclusivity whenever and whereever possible . . .<br><br>That said, perhaps we as an industry need to make people more comfortable in describing wines in terms THEY want to and to not be afraid to be &#39;wrong&#39; in their descriptors&#39; . . . .<br><br>Just another data point this morning.<br><br>Cheers!<br><br>larry schaffer<br>tercero wines <a href="www.tercerowines.com" rel="nofollow">www.tercerowines.com</a>larry schafferhttp://www.tercerowines.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-510288940796977839.post-63308478952610634772009-12-09T12:55:32.650-08:002009-12-09T12:55:32.650-08:00Paul, I was the one in that thread who quoted your...Paul, I was the one in that thread who quoted your note on the same wine. You&#39;re spot on about the anti-snob angle being taken too far to the point of stupidity. But I think it&#39;s also reasonable to ask at what point a review intended for public consumption loses meaning. I cited your note since I think you (and also Steve Heimoff at WE) do a commendably good job focusing on describing structural components of wine instead of just listing adjectives. There&#39;s a balance of pragmatism and pretentiousness in tasting notes, and Bonne arguably crossed the line into pretentiousness at the expense of descriptiveness.<br><br>I am curious to ask a professional, what do you mean by graphite? Pencil lead consists of graphite and clay, and I&#39;ve been told it&#39;s really the clay that has an earthy, metallic aroma. But usually the clay is volatilized while sharpening a pencil, so I&#39;d think many people experience it as part of pencil shavings, a mix of wood, paint, graphite and clay. Perhaps in the wine lexicon graphite has acquired a meaning different from a purely scientific definition, though. Pencil shavings are clear to me, but graphite has a definite ambiguity in my mind as it could mean.Greghttp://thecabfrancofiles.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com